Need help with last minute trip to southern France
Replies: 6 - Last Post: Nov 15, 2012 2:31 AM Last Post By: regards
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Need help with last minute trip to southern France
Need help planning a last-minute trip from London to France on 25 November for about 7 days. I will leave London on 25 Nov and arrive in Paris where I will spend the rest of the day. On 26 Nov I plan to take a train to southern France and explore the region for the remaining 6 days before heading back to London on 2 Dec. Planning to go to Avignon, Arles, Pont du Gard, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille and Nice, and also hope to make day trips out of Marseille and Nice to places like Orange or Eze. Will be using public transport throughout. I can already sense I am trying to fit too much in a week so need help with suggestions on which places I should visit and which ones can be left out. My interests include photography so I enjoy walking around towns/cities taking pictures rather than visiting museums and art galleries. I enjoy good food, visiting markets and getting a sense of the place -- even if it's just a day. I also enjoy train and bus journeys so okay with doing day trips to some of the smaller villages or a train ride along the blue coast. Would like to see some countryside and some off-beat places. Any suggestions will be gratefully received. Thanks1
It will be a nightmare with public transportation, forget it, too many things to see in a too short time : a car rental is highly recommended.i would also recommend to forget about Marseille and Arles. While visiting le Pont du Gard, go to Uzes, a wonderful provencal village with nice market on Saturdays and Wednesdays. Also think about visiting Montpellier, you would be surprised by the beauty of this historical city.
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You need to book your trains to/from S France pronto to secure best price. Refer also to http://www.skyscanner.net to see what options are available for flying, this late int he day could be cheaper.I also agree that you're trying to do far too much.
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Daytrip from Marseille to Orange make no sense. Better to do it from Avignon. And I would skip Marseille as there is nothing very interesting to discover beside the fact that especially this city is unsave. About a trip from Nice to Eze - which one: Eze bord de mer, Eze-Village or Col d'Eze. Do you have a map or a guidebook about southern France?5
Hi everyone, thanks for the suggestions. Have figured out my journey in and out of France. Will be taking an overnight train from Paris to Nice, to save time, and flying out from Marseilles as it was the cheapest option at £11. Have figured out the Nice leg of the journey with spending the day in Nice and evening in Monaco and Monte-Carlo, and the next day will tour nearby towns and villages, including Eze-Village, and others along the coast and further north. Have signed up for one of the guided day tours usually against my travel policy but driving is not an option -- not used to the left-hand drive and do not want to experiment when alone! Since Marseilles is my exit point I will need to go there but planning not to spend more than half a day in the city. Have seen some interesting day trips to wineyards and smaller towns/villages which I am considering taking and will use Avignon as a base. Thanks for suggestions on Uzes and Montpellier -- will look them up. Bee working with a Rick Steeves guide book, LP's online guide and the internet which has thrown up some interesting blogs written by locals that have helped immensely in planning the trip. Thanks again6
Think about if staying in MC that the last train connection (TER) back to Nice is at 23:42 before the first next day at 05:18 - this is the timetable from today. A second possibility is only a Taxi (22km in the night between 300 and 400 Euro).Eze-Village is not on the railroad track. From Nice you can go easy by bus #112 and 100 - the trip need 30 minutes for 1€, one way.
If going for a full day excursion by a private company including the backland you need to know that you will have no more than 30 minutes most of the time on each place they make a stop. The driver/guides are not really professional guides and their English is most of the time less than just poor.
